Showers on the horizon

The promise held out by the morning drizzle on Monday might be fulfilled in the next 48 hours, said the weatherman.

Parts of the city and its suburbs received light rain between 5am and 7am on Monday, which kept the temperature in check, though only for a couple of hours.

But there is hope for more rain by Wednesday evening, caused by a trough of low pressure stretching from Bihar to Bangladesh. “The trough is likely to intensify over the next 48 hours and bring rain to south Bengal,” said Gokul Chandra Debnath, director, India Meteorological Department, Calcutta.

The rain, if it comes, would not be as light as Monday’s, which was caused by localised cloud formations, said the weatherman.

The morning did not show the day on Monday with the swelter returning as the minimum relative humidity rose from 30 to 43 per cent because of the strengthening of the southerly-southwesterly wind that brings in moisture from the Bay of Bengal to the city and its surrounding areas.

The rain and clouds, however, did bring down the maximum temperature from 39.1 degrees Celsius on Sunday to 36.7, two notches above normal.